For Ricardo Lamas, Road Back To Title Begins At UFC Fight Night 44

For Ricardo Lamas, the road to another crack at the UFC featherweight title begins this evening at UFC Fight Night 44 against Hacran Dias.

Earlier this year, Lamas suffered a loss to Jose Aldo for the title at UFC 169. He was disappointed with his performance that evening, and continues to ponder what went wrong to this day.

“Because it was a title shot, I was a little bit overly cautious,” said Lamas, during a recent interview with MMA Weekly’s Majority Draw Radio. “I didn’t really fight like myself. It cost me the fight.

“I beat myself in that fight. Jose Aldo didn’t beat me.”

Lamas (13-3), who turned 32 years old last month, had won four straight prior to the defeat, including a 2011 submission win over Cub Swanson and a 2013 finish of Erik Koch.

While Dias is a worthy competitor, Lamas admitted he asked for other fights instead following the Aldo defeat.

“UFC didn’t really want to give them to me,” he said. “Hacran was the only guy that they had for me. He’s no slouch. He’s a tough guy and it’s a good fight. Just because he isn’t ranked doesn’t mean anything to me.”

While some have questioned the UFC’s decision to put Lamas from a pay-per-view main event to a bout on free television, the fighter isn’t overly concerned. Instead, he sees it as a chance to showcase his skills to a world-wide audience.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Lamas said. “Every UFC event has the potential to be a blockbuster hit. It depends on the fighters and it depends on how the fights go.”

FightLine will have complete coverage of all the action from San Antonio tonight, including live play-by-play and all your post-fight news and information.